FLR is a process that aims to recover, enhance, maintain and foster more resilient and sustainable landscapes. With 20 percent of the Earth's vegetated surface showing a decline in productivity, there is a great need for FLR. Ecosystems are now being degraded at an unprecedented rate, increasing competition for scarce natural resources and thus threatening people’s livelihoods, well-being, food, water and energy security and the resilience capacity of both people and natural ecosystems. By 2050, degradation and climate change could reduce crop yields between 9 to 21 percent.
Deforestation and landscape degradation represent global issues: around 13 million ha of forest were converted to other land uses or lost through natural causes each year from 2000 to 2010. Continued landscape degradation poses serious obstacles to eliminating poverty and hunger, maintaining biodiversity, and it makes it difficult for farmers and local communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Countries have begun to formulate national strategies on FLR as part of their forest policies and as key actions to enhance the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outlined in the Paris Agreement.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration was declared in 2021 to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. Led by UN-REDD partner agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Decade is building global political momentum for a sustainable future and will catalyze the implementation of thousands of restoration initiatives.
Forest Landscape Restoration initiatives require baseline information and continuous monitoring for successful implementation. National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) are developed by countries to generate reliable data and information to support forest policies and report on international commitments related to forests. Integrating FLR into NFMS is recognized as a practical and valuable way to support the implementation of FLR national strategies and to measure their progress. Since the inception of REDD+, NFMS capacities have been boosted under various initiatives and programmes, including through the UN-REDD Programme, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Task Force on Monitoring for the UN Decade, facilitated by FAO, brings together 100 organizations and offers an overarching coordination for monitoring through the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM) to improve data access and transparency. Restoration tools and platforms, currently in use and under development in UN-REDD programme activities include FAO's SEPAL and Open Foris suite. The FERM makes available tools in an accessible format for restoration stakeholders.
The UN-REDD programme can play a catalytic role in achieving forest landscape restoration goals by:
Enabling knowledge and technology transfer, including comprehensive methodological and technical solutions to respond to multiple information needs at multiple spatial levels (international, national, sub-national or local).
Developing the capacity of people, communities, rural institutions and countries to monitor and report their own restoration progress.
Developing complimentary restoration monitoring and planning tools that help elucidate the benefits and costs of restoration.
Reducing complexity in restoration planning and strengthening governance for the involvement of multiple institutions, actors, and technical specialties;
Bolstering and spurring further investments into restoration
Leveraging networks and partnerships to develop capacity for technical solutions on the ground in our partner countries, such as human resources, financing, and infrastructure;
